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Landslides are major natural hazards which not only result in the loss of human life but also cause economic burden on the society. Therefore, it is essential to develop suitable models to evaluate the susceptibility of slope failures and their zonations. This paper scientifically assesses various methods of landslide susceptibility zonation in GIS environment. A comparative study of Weights of Evidence (WOE), Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP), Artificial Neural Network (ANN), and Generalized Linear Regression (GLR) procedures for landslide susceptibility zonation is presented. Controlling factors such as lithology, landuse, slope angle, slope aspect, curvature, distance to fault, and distance to drainage were considered as explanatory variables. Data of 151 sample points of observed landslides in Mazandaran Province, Iran, were used to train and test the approaches. Small scale maps (1:1,000,000) were used in this study. The estimated accuracy ranges from 80 to 88 percent. It is then inferred that the application of WOE in rating maps’ categories and ANN to weight effective factors result in the maximum accuracy.

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The increase in the computational capabilities in the last decade has allowed numerical models to be widely used in the analysis, leading to a higher complexity in structural engineering. This is why simple models are nowadays essential because they provide easy and accessible understanding of fundamental aspects of the structural response. Accordingly, this article aims at showing the utility and effectiveness of a simple method (i.e. the Load Path Method) in the interpretation of the behaviour of masonry buildings subjected to foundation settlements due to landslide. Models useful for understanding brick-mortar interface behaviour as well as the global one are reported. The global proposed approach is also validated by using Bi-directional Evolutionary Structural Optimization method. Moreover, drawing inspiration from a case study, the article shows that the proposed approach is useful for the diagnosis of crack patterns of masonry structures subjected to landslide movements.